64 chevelle dissection/resurrection

It's going to to be hard or impossible to recreate the indentations by GM everywhere. GM hand Master Dies Stamps 100 Ton stamp presses.

Rule of thumb race car fab when in doubt make the Part 3-4 times thicker material than the factory used.
 
Slowly but surely piecing it together. Main plate is 16g and used 18 to help form the indented areas. It isn't perfect but close and its more material than what I started with so it should hold together just fine. What strength maybe lost will be made up in the roll cage. This particular piece is what holds the nut cage for the lower rear of the fender.
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Got it mocked up. Gave up for today while I'm ahead. Still pondering whether I want to attach the nut cage before I weld it or after. Also have to trim off the lower edge which I might wait to do until I get it most of the way done so as not to cut off to much.
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Tomorrows project is to get that corner figures out and try to get the rocker fitted and welded in.
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It's been a while since I've worked on the car. Spent the summer working on everything else. I did get one project out of the shop and gained some much needed room as well as reorganized a bunch of stuff to make even more room. I've also had a tractor split in my shop all summer and I finally, after months of searching for parts, got it back together enough to roll and moved it to the other stall. I managed to start making some progress on the car over the last few weekends.

Donor car disassembly. Removed the upper and lower cowl as well as the dash. Still need to take out the drivers side inner pillar panel thats notorius for rotting out on these cars.
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Partial outer rocker installed.
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Got the old dash out.
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Got the old cowl out and prepped everything for install. Just waiting for the rust encapsulator coating to dry overnight and should get to installing it tomorrow.
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This is going to be one very sweet car when you get it done! Looking forward to seeing more
progress, I had a 64 Chevelle when I was a teenager.
 
Got the lower cowl welded in over the weekend and welded up the rust holes in the left lower dash mount and reshaped it. Started to build the first layer of skin for the rh kick panel before switching my focus back to the tractor. Over all made some pretty good progress on both projects.
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that looks good! I well remember spending weeks doing similar repairs and mods on a friends 1964 GTO
 
If you get too scared to drive it after all the 100's of hours of work, I might be able to break
the ice if you need me to come to AZ and show you how to drive it to Oklahoma !

I had a 64 Chevelle and Nova in the 1960's, so I'm all ears !
.
 
that looks good! I well remember spending weeks doing similar repairs and mods on a friends 1964 GTO
These a-bodys sure do like to rust. A fire in the drivers side didnt help this one by any means nor did sitting in the midwest for most of its life. Been working on it one week at a time. I hope to at least have the front of it squared away and get the firewall and floor back in before spring. My wife and kids are in the midwest for the holidays with family and hope to have her drag my muncie back here with the lakewood scatter shield so I can start making a move on the chassis mods.
 
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If you get too scared to drive it after all the 100's of hours of work, I might be able to break
the ice if you need me to come to AZ and show you how to drive it to Oklahoma !

I had a 64 Chevelle and Nova in the 1960's, so I'm all ears !
.
I'm not opposed to letting qualified drivers behind the wheel. I myself should be alright. With any new car it'll take a little getting used to but once the bugs are worked out I'll be running it hard. I would say the ramrod shifter will be the biggest oddity as I've not used an inline shifter but the theory is straight forward, pun intended, so shouldn't take more than a couple drives to get that under wraps. Starting it on cooler days with dual 660's and a mag might be little tricky too. Either way it's going to be fun.
 
I'm not opposed to letting qualified drivers behind the wheel.
I must be qualified, I have a driver's license ! LOL! :rolleyes:

I would say the ramrod shifter will be the biggest oddity as I've not used an inline shifter but the theory is straight forward, pun intended
That's interesting, I'm not familiar with an inline shifter for a manual trans.

Either way it's going to be fun.
Oh, there is no doubt there. I quickly scanned the other 5 pages and didn't see what engine you
are planning. What's up with the driveline ?

My older brother was quick to tell me that any size Chevy motor fit into that engine bay, but it
was an old lady car, kept in the garage and had a inline 6 motor. Unlike my Nova, but I had more
fun with it since it had more pony's.
 
I must be qualified, I have a driver's license ! LOL! :rolleyes:
They'll let anyone have a drivers license these days. :cwl: I think that qualification comes from me. Also it will be a straight axle car so not your normal handling chevelle.

I'm not familiar with an inline shifter for a manual trans.

Check out the Hurst Ramrod shifter or any Vertical gate shifter. Basically the original speed shifter if you have it setup correctly. There's a picture of my shifter in the thread below plus a video to help explain it.
http://garage.grumpysperformance.co...lder-shifter-thats-a-p-i-t-a.7849/#post-74292

I quickly scanned the other 5 pages and didn't see what engine you
are planning. What's up with the driveline ?

It'll have a 308ci SBC backed by a 4 speed and a 12 bolt. It's the 302 build that I have a thread on over in the engine combo forum plenty of info over there on it.
http://garage.grumpysperformance.com/index.php?threads/vintage-302-chevy.12071/
 
Finally back on a normal weekend schedule and got the inner skin fitted on the passenger pillar. Coated everything thats going to be hidden with rust encapsulator and should be welding it in tomorrow.
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Finally got my 4 speed and bellhousing. Believe the housing is a mcleod and the 4 speed is just a muncie M20. The M20 is going to be a weak link and will be a stand in until I can get a 4 speed built that will do what I need it to.
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anyone whos done that type of restoration, and done the required component replacement comes to understand,
both why a correct and well done restoration cost so much and takes so long,
and why so many times, your average body shop, that are quoting you prices to do that work, skimp,
or hide and ignore doing component replacement or don,t get it done correctly,
and tend to do crap quality work,
shops doing that type of work tend to skip or ignore or hide areas that are not easily seen on the less well done restorations.
done correctly a restoration can take many months and its a nearly bottomless money pit in some cases.
thats one reason that you seldom see total restorations done by other than enthusiasts with their own shop and tools who are willing to work at their own pace,
as commercial labor charges,
make the process almost prohibitive, its also why having access to a donor car for parts is very helpful
 
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anyone whos done that type of restoration, and done the required component replacement comes to understand,
both why a correct and well done restoration cost so much and takes so long,
and why so many times, your average body shop, that are quoting you prices to do that work, skimp,
or hide and ignore doing component replacement or don,t get it done correctly,
and tend to do crap quality work,
shops doing that type of work tend to skip or ignore or hide areas that are not easily seen on the less well done restorations.
done correctly a restoration can take many months and its a nearly bottomless money pit in some cases.
thats one reason that you seldom see total restorations done by other than enthusiasts with their own shop and tools who are willing to work at their own pace,
as commercial labor charges,
make the process almost prohibitive, its also why having access to a donor car for parts is very helpful

It's only when someone takes on a project of significant size such as this that they can truly understand the amount of work that goes into it. Take graveyard cars as example beyond all the drama and dumb jokes they actually put a lot of time into those cars and the quality is top notch hence the price tag. I'm doing 99.9% of this by myself and not even doing a 100% quality job on everything 90% of it is just building knowledge what to do and what not to do. Working with what I have basic hand tools and a welder. No big fancy equipment just trial an error and determination.
 
Doubler is fabbed up. It's a SOB trying to bend a piece of 14 gauge 10 different ways. Anyways thats a wrap for today. Going to get everything prepped tomorrow and coat it then move to the drivers side while that drys. Maybe try to weld it in Sunday. That'll complete the passenger side.
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